Trump is surprisingly aligned with Democrats on this issue
Who benefits from this decision?
Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman.
Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red tape around the industry he’s lauded as a job engine, used his Tuesday State of the Union address to announce he’s told major tech companies to build their own power plants to shield ratepayers from further hikes.
It's a remarkable pivot by leaders of both parties. And it reflects the rapidly shifting politics around data centers they had hailed as economic generators but are now retreating from as voters blame their proliferation for rising utility costs — part of an overall frustration with high prices that is dominating the midterms.
“The fact that everyone is talking about this all of a sudden shows how quickly this issue is moving and that politicians are reflecting the frustration that people are feeling over paying so much on their energy bills while data centers get tax breaks,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action.
These recent contortions also show both parties are still grappling with the way forward on an increasingly potent political issue.
Democrats harnessed voters’ frustrations over rising utility bills — and their fears that power-hungry data centers could push them higher — to win governor’s offices in New Jersey and Virginia and oust two Republicans on Georgia’s utility regulating commission last fall.
Voters’ worries haven’t ebbed. The POLITICO Poll found in mid-January that voters’ chief concerns about data centers involved household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost taxpayer money.
Both parties have seized on making tech companies pay for their power as a salve.
Just six months ago, Trump declared he was accelerating federal permitting for data centers and headed to western Pennsylvania to praise companies for investing tens of billions of dollars in energy infrastructure as part of his push to be the “world’s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence.”
But on Tuesday, the president said he was negotiating with the companies behind data centers to build their own power plants to secure their power supply “while at the same time lowering prices of electricity” for Americans.
Trump was light on the details about what his “ratepayer protection pledge” actually meant in practice, though the White House said tech companies …
Who benefits from this decision?
Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman.
Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red tape around the industry he’s lauded as a job engine, used his Tuesday State of the Union address to announce he’s told major tech companies to build their own power plants to shield ratepayers from further hikes.
It's a remarkable pivot by leaders of both parties. And it reflects the rapidly shifting politics around data centers they had hailed as economic generators but are now retreating from as voters blame their proliferation for rising utility costs — part of an overall frustration with high prices that is dominating the midterms.
“The fact that everyone is talking about this all of a sudden shows how quickly this issue is moving and that politicians are reflecting the frustration that people are feeling over paying so much on their energy bills while data centers get tax breaks,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action.
These recent contortions also show both parties are still grappling with the way forward on an increasingly potent political issue.
Democrats harnessed voters’ frustrations over rising utility bills — and their fears that power-hungry data centers could push them higher — to win governor’s offices in New Jersey and Virginia and oust two Republicans on Georgia’s utility regulating commission last fall.
Voters’ worries haven’t ebbed. The POLITICO Poll found in mid-January that voters’ chief concerns about data centers involved household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost taxpayer money.
Both parties have seized on making tech companies pay for their power as a salve.
Just six months ago, Trump declared he was accelerating federal permitting for data centers and headed to western Pennsylvania to praise companies for investing tens of billions of dollars in energy infrastructure as part of his push to be the “world’s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence.”
But on Tuesday, the president said he was negotiating with the companies behind data centers to build their own power plants to secure their power supply “while at the same time lowering prices of electricity” for Americans.
Trump was light on the details about what his “ratepayer protection pledge” actually meant in practice, though the White House said tech companies …
Trump is surprisingly aligned with Democrats on this issue
Who benefits from this decision?
Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman.
Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red tape around the industry he’s lauded as a job engine, used his Tuesday State of the Union address to announce he’s told major tech companies to build their own power plants to shield ratepayers from further hikes.
It's a remarkable pivot by leaders of both parties. And it reflects the rapidly shifting politics around data centers they had hailed as economic generators but are now retreating from as voters blame their proliferation for rising utility costs — part of an overall frustration with high prices that is dominating the midterms.
“The fact that everyone is talking about this all of a sudden shows how quickly this issue is moving and that politicians are reflecting the frustration that people are feeling over paying so much on their energy bills while data centers get tax breaks,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action.
These recent contortions also show both parties are still grappling with the way forward on an increasingly potent political issue.
Democrats harnessed voters’ frustrations over rising utility bills — and their fears that power-hungry data centers could push them higher — to win governor’s offices in New Jersey and Virginia and oust two Republicans on Georgia’s utility regulating commission last fall.
Voters’ worries haven’t ebbed. The POLITICO Poll found in mid-January that voters’ chief concerns about data centers involved household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost taxpayer money.
Both parties have seized on making tech companies pay for their power as a salve.
Just six months ago, Trump declared he was accelerating federal permitting for data centers and headed to western Pennsylvania to praise companies for investing tens of billions of dollars in energy infrastructure as part of his push to be the “world’s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence.”
But on Tuesday, the president said he was negotiating with the companies behind data centers to build their own power plants to secure their power supply “while at the same time lowering prices of electricity” for Americans.
Trump was light on the details about what his “ratepayer protection pledge” actually meant in practice, though the White House said tech companies …
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